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Raptors’ Valanciunas tower of strength and calm

Jonas Valanciunas has been a rebounding force in NBA playoff showdown with Pacers.

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Toronto Raptors coach Dwane Casey says the team shouldn't get too relaxed after a Game 2 win that tied their first round playoff series with the Indiana Pacers. The Raptors head to Indianapolis for Thursday's Game 3.

There was at least one moment in Monday night’s Raptors playoff win when Kyle Lowry got visibly upset.

Toronto’s NBAers had just run an offensive set that didn’t meet Lowry’s satisfaction, so the point guard barked a complaint in the direction of Jonas Valanciunas.

The way Valanciunas reacted was memorable. Lowry, Toronto’s best player, is a two-time all-star, 30 years old, and occasionally cranky. Valanciunas, by contrast, is just four years into his NBA career and won’t turn 24 until next month. And yet, even with the pressure-addled Raptors already down a game in their best-of-seven series with the Indiana Pacers and clinging to a six-point lead, and even with Lowry momentarily perturbed, Valanciunas appeared far from rattled. He was a vision of zen calm.

The seven-footer simply flashed a palms-down gesture universally understood to translate to something like, “Hey, Kyle — calm down.” And on with the game Valanciunas went, racking up 23 points and 15 rebounds on one of the finest nights of his professional life.

As Jamaal Magloire, the ex-NBA all-star who’s now an assistant coach with the Raptors, was saying on Tuesday: “J.V.’s maturing in front of our eyes as a basketball player. He just doesn’t get agitated when things don’t go his way.”

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It is a well-timed blooming, to be sure. In a series in which DeMar DeRozan has disappeared into a self-induced fog and Lowry is still searching for his scoring touch, Valanciunas has emerged as the much-needed third option, tallying a team-best 35 points and 34 rebounds over two games in a series now tied at one game apiece.

Jonas Valanciunas fields questions on Tuesday's off-day in the Raptors-Pacers series, which has been a showcase for the best that his game has to offer. (Steve Russell / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

“Right now he’s carrying us,” Luis Scola, the veteran Raptors big man, said. “(The Pacers have) created this scheme in which they do not want our main two guys to score, and that’s created a lot of opportunities for Jonas, and he’s really taking advantage of it.”

Valanciunas’s fine work has led more than one observer to blue-sky the untapped upside of the Lithuanian, who’s under contract at a reasonable $16 million for the coming four seasons. Raptors coach Dwane Casey has spoken of the “next phase” in the centre’s development, in which the team will encourage him to improve his outside shot in the long-term hope that he’ll one day be as comfortable shooting three-pointers as, say, Scola, who’d just drained 23 of 25 practice attempts from behind the arc during a drill.

As it is, Magloire figures 18 feet is the limit to Valanciunas’s current range — a big step in from the arc.

“I always tell this to Jonas, he needs to be able to start developing a face-up shot,” Scola said. “The game’s not going to wait for you. If you don’t go there, they’re just going to go without you.”

The NBA centre position is changing, to be sure. The traditional low-post pivot has all but disappeared, and many teams have come to employ quicker, more athletic seven-footers in their stead. Scola was listing off a handful of those types on Tuesday. DeAndre Jordan of the Clippers, Hassan Whiteside of the Heat, Rudy Gobert of the Jazz. While Valanciunas doesn’t possess that group’s collective explosiveness, his skill set is unique — which, in some eyes, might serve to differentiate him in a positive way.

“I think (Valanciunas) could be a great modern centre,” Scola said. “I believe he needs to find a way to match up to these guys’ athleticism . . . But he also can add the touch and the post game and all the things he does offensively.”

Valanciunas, though he can be effective in the post, has certainly displayed versatility. Six of his 10 field goals in Monday’s win came on alley-oops, dunks or layups set up by Lowry or Cory Joseph, mostly off pick-and-roll actions. But Valanciunas also sprinkled in a nifty turnaround move in the block, a put-back, and a jump shot.

And putting the ball in the basket hasn’t even been his most notable achievement. Valanciunas’s 15 rebounds in Monday’s win — when combined with his 19 boards in Game 1 — made him the first NBA player in five years to open a playoff series with 15 or more rebounds in back-to-back games. Pacers big men Ian Mahinmi and Myles Turner simply can’t hang.

That doesn’t simply bode well for Toronto in this series. It’s a heartening sign for days to come. He can still be a liability defensively, not reactive enough to some eyes. The key, Scola said, will be to put in enough work to minimize that downside.

“Your skill set has to be better than your weakness set,” Scola said.

Magloire said that Valanciunas, along with being unflappable, has a work ethic that’s unremitting: “Sometimes we have to stop him from overworking.”

Scola, speaking of his teammate’s limits, joked that he might as well be Valanciunas’s agent, and suggested a commission might be in order. Two per cent? “Even one per cent,” Scola said. Any fraction could be a lucrative piece, indeed, today and beyond.

“There’s a bright future ahead of him, regardless. He can do everything wrong and the bright future will still be out there,” Scola said. “How bright? How high is he going to get? That’s the question. We’re talking about very good to oh-my-god good. We’re talking very high level. But how high that level is depends on him . . . He just needs to commit.”

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